Semiconductor light-emitting devices including light emitting diodes (LEDs), resonant cavity light emitting diodes (RCLEDs), vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSELs), and edge emitting lasers are among the most efficient light sources currently available. Materials systems currently of interest in the manufacture of high-brightness light emitting devices capable of operation across the visible spectrum include Group III-V semiconductors, particularly binary, ternary, and quaternary alloys of gallium, aluminum, indium, and nitrogen, also referred to as III-nitride materials.
Typically, III-nitride light emitting devices are fabricated by epitaxially growing a stack of semiconductor layers of different compositions and dopant concentrations on a sapphire, silicon carbide, III-nitride, or other suitable substrate by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), or other epitaxial techniques. The stack often includes one or more n-type layers doped with, for example, Si, formed over the substrate, one or more light emitting layers in an active region formed over the n-type layer or layers, and one or more p-type layers doped with, for example, Mg, formed over the active region. Electrical contacts are formed on the n- and p-type regions.
In commercial III-nitride LEDs, the semiconductor structure is typically grown by MOCVD. The nitrogen source used during MOCVD is typically ammonia. When ammonia dissociates, hydrogen is produced. The hydrogen forms a complex with magnesium, which is used as the p-type dopant during growth of p-type materials. The hydrogen complex deactivates the p-type character of the magnesium, effectively reducing the dopant concentration of the p-type material, which reduces the efficiency of the device. After growth of the p-type material, the structure is annealed in order to break the hydrogen-magnesium complex by driving off the hydrogen.